Year four of Hadrian's reign — rendered in Egyptian regnal notation as L Δ — fell during the emperor's early consolidation of power following Trajan's death and the controversial execution of four senior senators, an act that shadowed the opening of his reign and which Hadrian blamed, perhaps unconvincingly, on the Senate itself. The Alexandrian mint operated under a closed currency system: provincial billon tetradrachms could not leave Egypt legally, forcing all commerce within the province to function on a separate monetary footing from the rest of the empire.
The billon content of Alexandrian tetradrachms declined erratically across the second century; issues from Hadrian's early years still carry relatively respectable silver content compared to what the series would become under later emperors.
Year four of Hadrian's reign — rendered in Egyptian regnal notation as L Δ — fell during the emperor's early consolidation of power following Trajan's death and the controversial execution of four senior senators, an act that shadowed the opening of his reign and which Hadrian blamed, perhaps unconvincingly, on the Senate itself. The Alexandrian mint operated under a closed currency system: provincial billon tetradrachms could not leave Egypt legally, forcing all commerce within the province to function on a separate monetary footing from the rest of the empire.
The billon content of Alexandrian tetradrachms declined erratically across the second century; issues from Hadrian's early years still carry relatively respectable silver content compared to what the series would become under later emperors.